“An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories”), and the writers of “The Pope’s Exorcist” extrapolated them into a very, very loose film adaptation.
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Russell Crowe, trying on a very thick Italian accent, plays Amorth, and the film details a specific demonic possession he encountered in 1987. Amorth is seen serving a fictional Italian Pope played by Franco Nero, even though the Polish John Paul II was the Holy Father at the time. Amorth is tasked with traveling to Spain to look into the possible demonic possession of a young boy named Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), an American kid who just moved into a disused abbey with his mom and sister (Alex Essoe and Laurel Marsden). One of the highlights of “The Pope’s Exorcist” is the sight of Father Amorth speeding to his destination on a Vespa, wearing shades and a fedora. The image was amusing enough to inspire scores of snarky unauthorized t-shirts.
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The recent death of Pope Francis has had film audiences flocking to the 2024 Oscar darling “Conclave,” a thriller about the election of a new Pope, as well as “The Two Popes,” the 2019 dramatization of the conversations held between Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (who would become Pope Francis after Benedict’s unexpected retirement). Anyone with a Hulu subscription, however, would do well to line up “The Pope’s Exorcist” as well. One may as well move from the sublime to the ridiculous.
